Bush’s Toothless Climate Plan

President George W. Bush stood in the White House’s Rose Garden this afternoon, and delivered his strategy for saving the world from climate change. Central was a new goal of stopping the growth of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by 2025, through a mix of incentives for lower-carbon power and better energy efficiency, especially for utilities. It wouldn’t be a bad plan – if it were the year 2000 and this was candidate George W. Bush speaking on the presidential campaign trail. As it stands, Bush’s new climate change policy – though no new specific initiatives were announced, aside from the 2025 goal – is too little, too slow, too late.


Actually, the candidate George W. Bush was tougher on global warming than the 2008 version. Back then, Bush said he was in favor of limiting carbon dioxide emissions from power plants. But he backtracked from that position quickly after his election, and since then has steadfastly opposed any kind of mandatory cap on U.S. carbon emissions. That didn’t change during his Rose Garden speech today, and that is why, while it’s heartening to see Bush actually name a goal for carbon emissions, his new proposal is virtually meaningless. Without hard carbon caps, climate change will not be defeated – and more than seven years into his Administration, that’s a fact Bush has yet to learn.

It’s not that Bush doesn’t have some good ideas. In the past and during his speech, Bush has emphasized the importance of developing new, carbon-free alternative energy sources as the only way to ultimately eliminate greenhouse gas emissions. “We must all recognize that in the long run, new technologies are the key to addressing climate change,” he said. Absolutely – and Bush’s ideas of reforming incentives that speed the commercialization of new technologies is smart, though difficult to fully judge without greater details. But bringing carbon-free alternatives to market isn’t easy – which is why renewables still make up a tiny percentage of our energy supply, despite all the attention paid to climate change. That’s why carbon caps – which gradually limit the level of carbon dioxide emissions that can be emitted by the economy – are so important. By raising the cost of fossil fuels, carbon caps drive investment toward energy efficiency and alternative power – and anything that allows businesses and consumers to escape the cost of carbon. Suddenly being green goes from a virtue to an economic necessity.

Time